Schools take part in Rachel's Challenge

Students at Liberty Park Middle School, Pizitz Middle School and Vestavia Hills High recently participated in a program called Rachel’s Challenge. Financial support for this program was provided by the Vestavia Hills City Council.

Rachel’s Challenge is a series of student-empowering programs and strategies that equip students and adults to combat bullying and allay feelings of isolation and despair by creating a culture of kindness and compassion.

The programs are based on the writings and life of 17-year-old Rachel Joy Scott, who was the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999.

As part of a school assignment, Rachel wrote an essay entitled “My Ethics, My Codes of Life.” She stressed in this essay that no one will know how far a little kindness can go and that you never know how your actions may just start a chain reaction of kindness. Six weeks after she wrote this essay, the Columbine massacre happened.